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Auburn upsets UNC to reach NCAA men’s Elite Eight

KANSAS CITY, MO.—Auburn insisted all along that it wouldn’t change its style against up-tempo North Carolina. Turns out the SEC Tournament champs can run a bit, too.

Auburn earned its second trip to the Elite Eight by coasting to a 97-80 victory over the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region on Friday night. The trigger-happy Tigers overcame an early deficit with a hot-shooting second to return to the region final for the first time in 33 years.

North Carolina (29-7) was the first top seed eliminated from this year’s NCAA Tournament. Auburn (29-9) tied its 1998-99 mark for most wins in a season.

The Tar Heels’ bevy of athletes could do nothing to slow down Auburn, which got 20 points and 11 boards from Chuma Okeke before he left with a gruesome knee injury late in the game. The big forward certainly didn’t do it alone as the Tigers had six in double-figures scoring, and they knocked down 17 of 37 three-pointers in a virtuoso shooting performance.

It might be Kentucky next — the second-seeded Wildcats played No. 3 Houston in the late game in Kansas City for the right to face arguably the hottest team in the NCAA Tournament.

Coby White and Cameron Johnson had 15 points apiece for North Carolina, which had won 10 of its last 11 with the lone loss coming to Duke — which played Virginia Tech in the other late game — in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.

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Auburn-Carolina was the track meet everyone anticipated from the opening tip, the only difference that the Tar Heels preferred to go to the basket while the Tigers kept pulling up for threes.

Early on, they didn’t make nearly enough.

Yet they managed to track down all the long boards, allowing coach Bruce Pearls’ team to hang tough on the glass against the team with nation’s No. 1 rebounding differential. That in turn gave them second and third chances down floor, and allowed Auburn to take a 41-39 lead into the break.

The Tigers’ run eventually reached 14-0 spanning halftime, giving them the first double-digit lead of the game. Roy Williams finally relented and called timeout, and the genteel North Carolina coach with the aw-shucks disposition spent most of it savagely ripping into his bench.

The Tar Heels responded, at least for a while. But even when Maye and Johnson managed to trim their deficit to 60-54 with 13 minutes left, and a building solidly packed with Carolina blue began to stir, a brazen bunch of Tigers answered by rejected a pair of dunks and knocking down a three.

Or two or three of them.

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In fact, they knocked down five straight threes at one point. Purifoy had two, prompting Williams to ask, “Who has No. 3!?” The answer was nobody: Purifoy knocked down another for good measure.

The Tigers’ momentum finally slowed when Okeke’s left knee buckled on the way to the basket. The sophomore forward crumpled to the floor along the baseline, rolling around in agony and disappointment, and it eventually took two trainers to help him limp to the locker room.

Auburn gave him something good to watch on television.

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Brown knocked down one more 3 to give the Tigers an 88-72 lead with 2:12 left, then took a steal for an emphatic breakaway dunk that the left the backboard shaking, and a single section sporting orange opposite the Auburn joined the rocking for a team headed to its first Elite Eight since 1986.

MICHIGAN ST. 80, LSU 63: For all of Michigan State’s veteran experience, its freshmen led the way into the Elite Eight. Aaron Henry scored a career-best 20 and fellow frosh Gabe Brown had 15 as the second-seeded Spartans beat third-seeded LSU 80-63 in Washington to move on to the East Region final.

Coach Tom Izzo’s upperclassman-heavy team is one victory away from its first Final Four appearance since 2015.

Michigan State took it to LSU on the glass, outrebounding the Tigers 34-20. At halftime, Michigan State had as many offensive rebounds as LSU had total boards.

It didn’t bounce off the rim much for the Spartans early as they took advantage of an LSU defence that left them uncontested three-point shots. Michigan State had five threes in the first 10 minutes alone, and LSU never adjusted defensively.

Tremont Waters scored 10 points during a 13-0 LSU run spanning the first half into the second to cut the deficit to four. Then Michigan State blew the game wide open with 3-pointers. The Spartans hit four of their first five three-point attempts out of halftime.

Henry did his best Draymond Green impression as the do-it-all 6-foot-6 forward was all over the offensive end. He had eight rebounds and six assists and was 9 of 14 from the floor.

Brown came in averaging two points a game and scored more than he had in his past 11 games combined. Brown had just five points in the Spartans’ past 12 games, but became a central figure against LSU.

Standout point guard Cassius Winston went toe-to-toe with Waters and finished with 17 points as one of four Michigan State players in double figures.

Michigan State faces the winner of the matchup between overall top seed Duke and No. 4 seed Virginia Tech in the regional final Sunday. This is Michigan State’s fifth Elite Eight appearance in the past 11 years and 10th under Izzo.

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